paying the price
by Lord Fireix
Summary: after a long and sleepless night of battling some of his toughest enemies and being chassed by his parents, Dash finally pushes Danny over the edge and pays the price.
1. Chapter 1

Danny was angry beyond all comprehension.

After battling the Fright Night for five hours last night he was immediately ambushed by Skulker and Ember, whom had decide that they would stand a better chance if they attacked together instead of separately, for another two hours, then had to fight his parent after they had caught him in the middle of the battle field and thought that he had decided to go on a rampage. When he finally managed to ditch his parents and get back into bed, he managed to stitch himself up and drop his head onto the pillow just as his alarm happened to go off right next to his ear. His response to the sudden and rude awakening, like any sleep deprived teenager, was, unplugging the machine and throwing it out of his second story window where it crashed to the ground and broke into a million pieces.

This was not the smartest idea ever because at that very moment Danny's parents pulled into the driveway and saw the clock break. Like him, Maddie Fenton was not a morning person, coupled together with the trade mark Fenton female anger issues resulted in her charging up to Danny's room and giving him a nice long chewing out about them not being made of money. Danny just gritted his teeth and ignored the little voice in his head screaming at him to tell his parents too shut up and fry them both with an plasma-ray. Once his mother stormed out of his room, Danny sighed and went into his bathroom to shower, then dressed for the morning to come. Ignoring his stomachs despite pleas for a half decent meal, he grabbed an apple out of the bowl and walked out the door to school.

Danny bit into his apple as he slandered down the street and spotted his best friend Samantha Manson, or just Sam unless you want a slow and very painful death. Sam was in her usual attire, black plaid skirt with hints of green, combat boots, purple tights, black chocker around her neck, and black shirt with a purple oval in the middle that showed off her mid drift. Danny couldn't help but smile at the sight of her.

"Hey," He said trying not to let his exhaustion show. Unfortunately for him, Sam was one of the few people in Amity Park that didn't posses the clueless jean as they liked to call it.

"Hey, were you up late last night?" Sam said in the gentle tone she normally reserved for when Danny came flying into her window at night, desperately needing medical attention.

"You have no idea." Danny's shoulders slumped as he finished his apple and threw it away. Much to his embarrassment though, his stomach growled very loudly, causing Sam to utter a small laugh before digging into her backpack and pulling out a few of the chocolate covered granola bars Danny loves so much. Danny took them, grateful that he had a friend like Sam that knew him so much, now if only she could see how much Danny cared about her.

The two walked to school while Danny filled Sam in on the details of his ghost fighting last night. When he was finished Sam grabbed him and held him in a comforting embrace, resting her chin on the top of his head. This was extremely awkward because of two reasons. 1) Danny had recently hit a growth spurt and was now a good half a foot taller than Sam, and 2) Danny's head was very close to a certain area on Sam's body that he had often fanaticised about and it was currently making his hormones run wild.

Danny escaped from Sam's grasp and fell a step behind her so he could have a chance to reposition his jeans, that way it wouldn't be painfully obvious to Sam of just how much he enjoyed that hug.

Danny and Sam managed to get to school on time that day. Normally Danny didn't get to school until half way through his first or second period so he was grateful for the break and wouldn't get detention for the umpteenth time that month. As he and Sam went their separate ways to their lockers, Danny let his exhaustion show slightly more. Dragging himself to his locker, he fumbled with the lock and started to get what he needed for today's class. That is, if he's lucky enough that a ghost won't attack and force him to leave early and get another detention.

"Hey, Fen-turd" Dash's obnoxious voice rang out through the halls. Under normal circum stances, Danny would just groan and take the jock's punishment, but today was different. Today Dash's voice sparked and uncontrollable anger in the pit of Danny's stomach that was reserved for only the toughest of Danny's enemies. "I got a D on my history test yesterday. You know what that means?"

Danny roughly shoved the last book into his bag and slammed his locker door so hard that he had left a barely noticeable indent the size of his hand in the door. "Oh shut the Fuck up Dash." Danny shouted as he spun around, a murderous glint in his eyes. The hall went dead silent; all eyes were on the angry Danny and the stunned Dash.

"What did you say to me?" Dash growled, finding his voice and making everyone in the audience shrink back. Everyone, except Danny that is who only glared at the bigger student in front of him.

"Just get out of my way Dash, because I'm not going to pull my punches for anyone today, least of all you." Danny growled back in a voice that wasn't full of cockiness and arrogance like Dash's. Danny's voice was filled with venom, pent up anger, and hate. Dash however, brushed it aside. He was still the same wimpy Fen-Tina he beat up on every day right?

"Fat chance," Dash yelled and threw a punch right at Danny's head.

Danny easily caught Dash's gorilla sized fist in his hand. The crowd and Dash gasped as Danny just kept that hateful glare on his face. For the next few seconds, time seemed to stand still as Danny just stood there, trembling with rage, all of the sleepless nights, all the painful injuries, all the hateful names that people had called him, including his own parents, finally sliced through the last of Danny's sanity. He was going to enjoy this day.

Danny roared as he let loose a vole of punches, until Dash's back made hard contact with the locker. Not waiting, Danny dashed forward and delivered a strong upper cut to Dash's jaw and laughed darkly as he felt several of his ribs splinter when he delivered an especially strong hit to Dash's rib cage. The football star was powerless to stop Danny as he grabbed the back of his letterman jacket and charged forward until Dash's head made a sickening thud as he was rammed head first into the lockers.

"You know Dash, you've been a really big pain in my ass for a really long time and today it ends." Danny shouted as he twisted his fingers in the bully's hair and slammed his head into the locker again and again.

Danny threw Dash backwards and laughed again as the jock tried to crawl to safety. "Oh no you don't, I'm not done with you yet." Danny said and grabbed Dash's throwing arm, twisting hit behind his back and kicked his elbow. Danny laughed out of insanity as Dash screamed in pain.

"You are nothing compared to me Dash, I could kill you in half a heart beet, I could kill everyone if I wanted to." Danny pulled Dash's head back and punched him in the throat the brought his knee up and made contact with Dash's face. Blood began flow freely as the bridge of his nose shattered on impact.

"You think you own this school? You think you control everything that happens in here because you have the students and teachers wrapped around you little finger?" Danny grabbed Dash's throat and lifted him up to his eye level. "From now on, I'm in charge of this school, and if I see you or any of your other lowlife friends even so much as thinking about bulling any of the other students, I will make sure that you spend the rest of your lives in wheelchairs." Danny growled and punched Dash in the head again, sending him into unconsciousness.

"Mr. Fenton!" Danny's head snapped up to see his teacher Mr. Lancer standing at the front of the crowd with a furious look in his eyes. "To my office NOW you have a lot of explaining to do."

"Actually Mr. Lancer, I think you're the one who has some explaining to do." Danny stood up, his usual baby blue eyes were filled with suppressed anger and hate for the teacher, making them look sharp and frosty. "Where were you about two minutes ago when Dash was preparing to beat the crap out of me again, like he does to everybody every day?" Danny's voice slipped into an eerie growl again as he slowly and menacingly started to advance on his teacher.

Mr. Lancer's intimidating stature crumbled to pieces as he found himself terrified of the student came towards him. He was startled when his back touched the cool metal of the lockers, not even realizing he had been moving backwards and began to panic as Danny got closer.

"You're nothing but a selfish old man. You constantly favour the popular crowed and don't do a damn thing when you know that a student has been hurt, whether it's physical or mental, you just brush it off and find some way to blame the victim by saying they're lying and give them detention." Danny's hands were balled into fists, but he kept them at his side.

"I... I don't-" Mr. Lancer stammered, but was quickly cut off by Danny's furious voice.

"DON'T you DARE try to even deny it. Every student in this school hates you because you're too selfish and uncaring to lift a finger and help the people who actually need it. You're nothing but a fat old man who's done nothing with his life; you don't have a wife, kids, or any other family that you're even close to." This time Danny just smiled cruelly at Mr. Lancer before he said one last insult in a low and chilling voice. "You're worthless."

Danny turned around and walked down the hall, the crowed parted to let him though except for Sam, who could only stare in shock at him, until he grabbed one of her wrists and dragged her with him. Mr. Lancer shook with fear as the image of Danny's cold and ruthless eyes burned fresh in his memory. He slumped to the ground, realizing that everything Danny had accused him of was true, how he favoured the popular crowed, how he let the young children get beaten, it was all true. And now he hated himself for it.

Outside of the back entrance of the school, Sam finally managed to snap to and pull her wrist from Danny's. "Danny, what the hell was that all about?" Sam scolded him, however if any of it sunk in, Danny didn't show it. He just stared at her with a strange emotion. "You can't just use your powers like that in public. What if your secret got out?" Sam was practically screaming, but Danny only subtlety smiled a flirtatious smile and began moving closer. "D-Danny..." That was all Sam got out, because immediately after Danny had closed the gap between them and firmly pressed his lips against hers.

It didn't take long for Sam to realize that what was happening was real and start kissing back with the same intensity. After a minute or so they broke apart for air. Sam started at Danny in shock; never in a million years would she have thought that he returned her feelings.

"Where did that come from?" She asked, still breathless from the passionate kiss.

"I was feeling bold, but I think the real question is, do you return my feelings?" He asked, a little bit of nervousness in his voice.

"That depends," Sam's voice took on a seductive tone, like when she had been taken over by Undergrowth. "What are your feelings about me?"

"Sam... I'm in love with you, I always have been, I always will be." Danny's voice was quiet, fearing that he had said too much. But those fears were put to rest when Sam's lips stretched into one of her rare smiles and she pulled him back into another kiss. The kiss was interrupted this time by Danny's ever bad timing, ghost sense.

"I gotta go." Danny sighed and changed into his alter ego. "Meet with you at the Nasty burger after school?"

"It's a date." Sam said and watched the halfa fly off into the distance.


	2. Chapter 2

Danny flew through the air at break neck speed, hell bent on finding whatever ghost that had interrupted him and Sam and giving it the beating of it's after life. Just as he was about to forget about it and go back to class he heard a familiar and annoying ghost making his presence known. "Beware, for I am the box ghost, master of all thing cardboard and square." Danny turned around to see the annoying, plump ghost doing his best to look intimidating. The halfa's eye twitched with rage. The box ghost never saw what hit him as he made hard contact with the brick wall of the school. Terror ran through him when he opened his eyes and saw a volley of highly charged plasma-rays heading straight for him that sent him high into the air.

He fell back to the earth like a rock and smashed so hard into the concrete sidewalk that he made a crater. Box ghost didn't have any time to recover because at the moment Danny swooped down and grabbed him by his leg, swinging baseball bat style into and through a street lamp that was only a few feet away. Box ghost looked up again and saw Danny just a split second before his energized fist made contact with the full ghost's face, sending him another twenty feet down the road and into a parked truck.

Danny calmly walked forward and grabbed the annoying ghost by his overalls. "I'll let you make one of two choices Box ghost, you can either; A) go back to the ghost zone now and never come out again or B) refuse option A and spend the rest of your after life in unimaginable pain." Box ghost started at the ghost child's eyes as they faintly, but noticeably took on a reddish tint. "Well what's it gonna be? Option A or B, I can live with either."

"Option A," Boxy choked out, before being sucked into the Fenton thermos.

"Now back to Sam." But before Danny could move, a pink blast hit him in the back and sent him crashing into the hard pavement of the street. He groaned as he picked himself off of the street and looked up to see the red huntress flying above him.

"You're not going anywhere ghost," Valerie was on top of her game today. She had gotten a generous ten hours of undisturbed sleep and had just gotten a complete system update. She saw Danny do what was thought impossible and kicked beat Dash into unconsciousness then yell at Mr. Lancer till he was shaking with fear, then dragged Sam off with him as he left. But the day had been ruined by that filthy ghost phantom showing his face again, "Because today I'm finally going to make you pay for what you did to me and my dad."

Danny's common sense told him to turn intangible and fly through the ground, so he could just ditcher her and get back to Sam, but something else made him stay. Again he felt that same surge of anger in the pit of his stomach as his breathing began to get heavier and heavier until his humanity gave way to anger. Without warning, Danny shot upward and used all his momentum to ram Valerie's jet sled from underneath, pitching Valerie off balance and hurling towards the pavement.

Before Valerie could slam into the ground, something caught her wrist and saved her from a painful slam. "You know what Valerie? I'm sick, I'm sick of all you disgusting ghost hunters claiming to be helping people by getting rid of evil ghosts yet the only ghost you ever hunt is me." He yelled, nearly pulling Valerie's arm out of her socket when he yanked her up to his eye level. "And I'm the only ghost in this miserable town that's actually doing anything to stop them from completely destroying you all."

Valerie didn't believe one word Danny was saying. "Shut up you filthy lying, ghost, you're wasting your breath on me, I know that all ghost ever do is lie." The red huntress glared at her long time enemy, but it soon shattered and the look on her face was one of pure terror as phantom growled out of anger and crimson red swirled with neon green in his eyes.

Danny roared with anger and threw Valerie the last few feet to the hard ground. She grunted in pain when her body mad contact with the earth, but she ignored it and immediately rolled backwards, onto her feet and started blasting away at Danny. The ghost boy just sighed however as he effortlessly dodged the shot and landed on the ground. Valerie was too stubborn to see that her opponent was just toying with her and proceeded to take out her ecto-grenade launcher, shooting at point blank range. The shot hit and dust a cloud of dust replaced where Danny had been standing.

Valerie breathed a sigh of relief and allowed a triumphant smile grace her lips. "Honestly," His voice came, whipping the smirk off her face. "Did you really think you could beat me so easily?" Danny stepped out of the dust cloud with no injuries what so ever, not even a scratch. "Those little toys of yours tickle." He laughed when Valerie scowled at him and pulled out her ecto-bazooka. She fired several blasts in rapid succession, but only fizzled out when Danny put up a wall of energy between them.

Before Valerie could fire another shot, Danny dashed forward and snatched the gun out of her hands, then effortlessly tore it in half and shot his own weakened plasma-ray at her. Danny's attack ended up sending Valerie into a wall of a nearby building. Groaning in pain, she lifted her head in time to see an ecto-sphere hurdling towards her and dodged rolled out of the way with only inches to spare.

Danny laughed to himself as Valerie desperately tried to keep up with him. If he had ever been this lenient in a ghost fight with one of his regular enemies, he would have been killed by now, Valerie was just lucky Danny wasn't capable of murder. The sound of Valerie's Jet sled powering up forced Danny out of his thoughts as he lazily rolled to the side to avoid said jet sled from splattering his head. He laughed when he saw Valerie climb back onto her board, trying to get an advantage by staying in the air.

"What are you laughing about ghost?" Even though Valerie had her helmet on Danny could tell she was shooting him a death glare.

"You," He calmly shot back. Valerie's glare intensified and shot several spikes at Danny from a gun that came out of the bottom of her jet sled. Danny raised a simple shield to block them, but what he didn't know was that the spikes were coated in ectoplasm, so they easily broke through his barrier and dug deep into his skin. He howled in pain and stumbled backwards pulling the three spikes out as he went.

Eyes burning more red than green now Danny charged up a dangerously powerful plasma ray and fired it in Valerie's direction, sending her far backwards and damaging her suit and board beyond function.

"Why do you insist on fighting me?" Danny said as he walked up to the shaking huntress.

"Because, you ruined my life and I won't let you ruin other people's lives." Valerie managed to choke out.

"Like you had much of a life anyway,"

Valerie looked up shocked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Phantom shook his head. "Look at the life you have now and the life you had before Cujo started showing up. Can you honestly say the life you had before is better than this one?" Danny watched in amusement as Valerie's answer quickly died in her throat. "I don't want to fight you Valerie, let's just... forget about are stupid rivalry and just get on with our lives, er afterlife in my case." Valerie stood up and dusted her poorly functioning suit before taking is hand in hers. "Good" Danny said and pulled his hand away, or tried to, but Valerie wouldn't let go.

Before Danny could realize what was happening, Valerie had flipped him over her shoulder and onto his back. "Like I told you before ghost, not all humans are saps." Valerie drew a glowing knife out of her belt and raised it to strike when someone suddenly tapped on one of her shoulders. She spun around and came face to face with... Phantom? The Danny didn't give Valerie any time to get over her shock because as soon as their eyes met he fired a plasma-ray and knocked her off her feet. The duplicate Danny helped his original to his feet before they both turned to face Valerie.

"That's it Valerie." The original Danny said. "Your second chances along with any hope mercy are gone." He growled and threw his arms out wide, his duplicate fallowing his example.

Valerie took a step backwards as four more Danny duplicates came into existence. Before she knew it, one of the duplicates was at her side and wrenched it way from her hand, throwing it far away. All six Phantoms let out chilling laughter as they punched, kicked, and blasted the red huntress into a flower shop window.

"What gives you the right to hunt my kind?" Danny asked as his duplicates merged back with him.

It took Valerie a second to regain her senses, but she responded with plenty of venom. "Because, all ghosts are evil and don't deserve to exist." Probably, not the smartest thing to say to a very powerful and pissed off ghost whom you've tried to kill many times in your life. But to her surprise phantom just scoffed.

"You really don't know how strong I am, do you? Even now after I've proved that your weapons don't even make a scratch on my jump suit, you're still ignorant to just how truly powerful I've become." Whether from fatigue or shock, Valerie didn't answer. "Well then, I guess I'll just have to show you what I'm really capable of." He said, sending chills up her back.

Danny rose into the air and raised on of his arms above his head. Instantly, a massive ball of ecto-energy, which was twice his own size formed in his hand. He laughed harshly at Valerie's cowering figure. With one fluid motion, he brought his hand down, but instead of releasing it, he did a flip over in the air and threw it up into the sky where it made a deafening explosion. Despite the extreme amount of power that he had used, Danny didn't look anymore tired that he did before they had gotten into the fight.

"Now that you get that I could kill you seconds, are you still going try and kill me or are you going to be smart for once in your life and walk away?" Danny said as he landed in front of Valerie again.

"Of course," she spat. "All ghosts are evil and need to be destroyed." She tried to get up and fight, but phantom slammed his foot down on her chest and kept her pinned to the ground.

"So by that logic all humans are good." Shocked, Valerie stared at him before he went on. "Earth is the flip side of the ghost-zone, so humans must be the flip-beings of ghost and if all ghosts are evil, then all humans must be good, right?" Valerie wanted to retort back with some smart comment, but couldn't because Phantom's logic was faultless. "Listen Valerie, I'd love to keep this conversation going, but I have a date to prepare for with the love of my life and I really want to impress her so." Danny reached past her head and grabbed a bouquet of lilacs, turned around, and flew off back to the direction of the school.

Danny floated into the boy's bathroom and changed into his human form. Calmly exiting the bathroom with the flowers in his hand, he found a nearby water fountain and filled up a vase made of ghost ice that he quickly created, with water. Once there was a good enough amount of water in it, he took the flowers from their wrappings and put them in. Satisfied, Danny made his way to his locker and used his ghost powers to phase the lilacs in and headed off to catch the last bit of his first period class.

He was looking forward to the rest of his day.

**Ok sorry if it's not that great, I really had to force this chapter for some reason. Hopefully the next chapter will be better. My favourite character is coming in to the story and we'll get to see the truly dark side of Danny.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny phantom. Ok who the F**k really cares if I put a disclaimer or not, if Nickelodeon is low enough to sue a fifteen year old kid for not putting a disclaimer on a FANFICTION work about a show they cancelled four years ago, well that show how much money they're making off of the shit shows that they cancelled DP for.**

Sam stood anxiously by the nasty burger, looking around constantly for her date. Sam had only felt this anxious once before in her life, when the ghost portal had opened up on Danny and he didn't come out right away. This time though, instead of the thought of losing Danny, the thought that Danny had possibly been playing with her feelings just for the fun of it all, ran though her head.

"Danny wouldn't do that to me, would he? No, he said he loved me, right?" Sam hung her head and groaned. She was so confused.

"Surprise" a voice whispered in her ear as a pair of strong arms quickly snaked around her waist. Sam squealed and turned around to come face to face with the boy she had been waiting for.

"Danny, don't do that." Sam said and slapped his arm playfully after she managed to get her breathing back to normal. Danny only smiled smugly and pulled her into a short, but sweet kiss.

"God that feels good, just to be able to kiss you whenever I feel like it." He said and kissed her again, only this time harder and with more passion.

After a few long seconds, Sam reluctantly broke away. "Danny, you know I love you," a small blush began to creep onto her face. "But maybe we should talk about this before we go any further." Danny could tell that Sam didn't want to break away from this moment anymore than he did, but she was right, so he reluctantly let her slip out of his arms.

"I agree" A shy smile played at Danny lips. "Let's get out of here Sam." He said, taking her wrist. "I wanna take you somewhere."

Danny led Sam behind the restaurant before going ghost and picking her up bridal style in his arms. He quickly took off into the warm afternoon sky, heading for the park. Minutes later they landed on a hill; under a small tree that over looked the city. Sam sat down and rested her back against the tree, patting the spot beside her. Danny understood her notion and sat down beside her, shifting Sam around so she was laying on his chest and not the tree.

"Well," Sam said.

"Well what?" Danny answered, clueless as ever.

"Are you going to ask me to be your girlfriend or not, because that is kind of the whole reason we flew out her, ya know." Sam laughed. She didn't care that he was clueless; in fact that's why she fell in love with him.

"Oh," Danny replied sheepishly, mentally smacking himself upside the head. He cleared his throat and tried to recall the speech he had prepared long ago for just this exact moment. "Sam, you know I love you, I maybe clueless, but the one thing I do know is that I want to be with you in more than just a friendly way, so I have to ask..." Danny trailed off, bighting his bottom lip nervously.

'What am I doing? She already made it clear that she likes me as much as I like her, why am I nervous?' Danny shook his head clear, noticing Sam was staring at him expectantly.

"Sam, will you be my girlfriend?"

Sam laughed at how noticeably nervous Danny's voice was. "Of course I'll be your girlfriend Danny."

Danny smiled and pulled Sam into a small, but much needed kiss. However, when Danny broke away, he could practically see then want and need swirling in Sam's violet eyes, almost begging him. And he was happy to oblige. Without warning, he quickly pushed her onto her back and pinned her body beneath his. Sam got over her shock quickly and smiled coyly as Danny leaned down to kiss her again.

But just as their lips were about to touch, a shot of green ecto-energy grazed the top of Danny's white hair.

"Let her go Phantom." Came the voice of Maddie Fenton, in a low growl.

Danny groaned and reluctantly twisted is head away from Sam's to see his parents. "Can't you two leave me alone? I'm trying to make out with my girlfriend here." Instead of reeling back in shock, like Danny thought they would, they only seemed to tighten their grips on the heavy duty bazookas they were holding.

"She said: Let her go!" Jack shouted and fired a shot at him; this one was directly aimed at his back. Danny scoffed and put up a small shield, stopping the blast cold.

"Is that all you've got? No wonder your kids are trying to distance themselves from you guys." Danny chuckled coldly. "The world's leading ghost experts and you can't even take down a teenager." He laughed full on this time. The Fenton parents could barley restrain their selves, but knew they had to, because they couldn't risk another shot without the possibility of hitting Sam. Sam, meantime, was staring at Danny in disbelief that he'd just delivered such a low blow to his own parents with such a calm look on his face.

"Danny" Sam said and caused Danny to turn his attention back to her.

"I'll swing by your house after I've dealt with these two." He said in a quiet voice and helped her up to her feet. "Just be ready for one hell of a make out session." He said and smiled his trademark lopsided smile. Sam blushed a bit and gave him a quick kiss, then turned and left.

"Don't move Phantom." Maddie growled. It would have even been intimidating to Danny, had he not already faced down things over seven times her size.

"Do you honestly think you can take me?" He scowled at his parents. "I've never actually tried to even hurt you, in fact all I've ever done is try to help you and how do you repay me?" Danny's voice was escalating to shouting and it was beginning to unnerve the ghost hunters.

"Shut up ghost, you're wasting your breath on us." Jack yelled.

"That's right," Maddie added, trying to sound brave and confident. "You're just a filthy blob of ectoplasm."

"YOU PEOPLE ARE SO GOD DAMN PREJIDOUSE, IT FUCKING SICKENSS ME!" Danny screamed, finally letting the full brunt of his anger out. "You've repeatedly judged my kind without any proof that all of us are evil, yet you seem to think that because you have these poorly based theories that all ghost are evil, it gives you the right to hunt us down and destroy us." Danny said, although in a comer voice, still had loads of rage and venom dripping from it. "You people are as bad as the Nazis."

Jack finally lost his temper and shot. Danny easily dodged and closed the gap between him and his dad, grabbing him by the front of his jump-suit, then tossing him effortlessly to the side. Maddie having the trademark, Fenton over protectiveness, quickly snapped into action and blindsided the ghost with a direct him from her ecto-bazooka. The shot was to powerful, Danny realized as he flew backwards and slammed into the tree he and Sam had been under only a few minutes ago.

"How...?" Danny managed to say through the unexpected pain.

Not a second later, Jack was standing over him with his own ecto-gun pointed at Danny's chest. "Natural ectoplasm," Jack said, answering Danny's question. "We stole it from your own sister." Danny's head snapped up in confusion.

"I don't have a..." Danny trailed off as he realized that there was only one ghost on the planet that looked like him enough for the two to be considered siblings. In an instant, Jack was pinned against the tree, staring into Danny's now completely red eyes. "Where is she? Where is Danielle? What have you done to my daughter?" He screamed.

Before Jack could answer her, Maddie charged towards them and delivered a shot from three feet away, but gasped in horror as the shot merely dissipated when it collided with the intense aura Phantom was now giving off. Danny focused hard and created three duplicates form behind him. One quickly snatched the bazooka and crushed it in his hands while the other two grabbed both of her arms and pinned them behind her back. She looked up, wide eyed as the first Phantom duplicate pulled his fist back and used his ghostly enhanced strength to send it rocketing forward, into her jaw. Several more shots fallowed to her torso and face again until she was covered in her own blood. The Danny duplicates let her drop and fused back with the original Danny.

"Now, unless you want me to do the same thing to you as I did to her, you'll tell me where my little girl is." Phantom snarled.

"She's at Fenton works, down in our lab." He said. Danny immediately dropped him and took off.

Jack took in a shaky breath, trying to settle his nerves, until a moan of pain from his wife snapped him back into to reality. He got to his feat and dashed to the Fenton R.V for the first aid kit and ran back to treat his wife's wounds. After concluding that several of her ribs had been broken along with her jaw being dislocated, he decided that it would be better to take her to the hospital. Jack lifted Maddie up as gently as possible and carried her over to the ghost hunting vehicle.

"What... What happened?" Maddie groaned as she tried to lift her head.

"It's alright Maddie, I'm taking you to the hospital, you've got a few broken ribs and your jaw is a bit off center." Jack said in his most soothing voice possible. Maddie slurred something that sounded like the ghost boy's name along with a few other nasty words.

Jack placed his wife in the passenger seat and then climbed into the driver's side, speeding off towards the nearest hospital. With Jack's driving they made it there quickly and Maddie was rushed into a room. It didn't take the doctors long to reset the Fenton women's jaw and set the ribs back into place, she was released.

"I'm gonna re-kill that ghost kid when I get my hands on him." Maddie growled, but winced as pain shot through her chest.

"Not until your ribs heal you don't." Jack sturdily reminded her. "Let's just get home, relax and maybe eat some fudge." He said without his usually over exited tone which he always used whenever someone mentioned the word, fudged.

But as they arrived home, they immediately noticed something was wrong. First of all, the front door was open and second, there were several, bulging suitcases on the front steps. Both parents exchanged glances at each other and didn't like what they saw.

"Say here," he said forcefully and grabbed a small ecto-gun out of the glove compartment. He jumped out the door and slowly made his way to the entrance of his house, but froze when he saw Danny coming out the door with another suitcase in hand.

"Danny," Maddie said as she slowly climbed out of the R.V, wincing from the pain. "What's going on? What are you doing with all of those suitcases?" She noticed the hard and somewhat hateful expression on his face as he looked at them.

Danny didn't answer. Instead he turned back and called out. "Dani, hurry up, Maddie and Jack are here." The Fenton parents were confused that their son was referring to them by their first names instead of mom and dad.

"Coming," A female voice replied from inside the house and not a second later, a thirteen year old looking girl was rushing down the staircase, but froze when she saw Maddie and Jack.

"Son, what's going on?" Jack repeated in a more demanding tone.

Danny glared at him, before replying. "I'm leaving,"

**Ok, a couple things. One Danny is Danielle's dad because her life was born from his D.N.A. two, Danny might seem a bit out of character at the end, but I'll explain why he's so angry in the next chapter. And three, I've been trying to update regularly because I think people who just put off updating for no good reason are dough bags. Well that's all for now, I'll try to update within the next one to two weeks. Until then.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ok everyone, here it is, the second last chapter of paying the price. This chapter is just kind of a filler, but i promis that next chapter maddie and jack are going to get the chewing out they really deserve.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own danny phantom, because if i did i'd make the animation less blocky styled and more realistic looking.**

Danny shot though the air at speeds that would make a Ferrari look like a snail. He had to get back to Danielle, she was his responsibility and he had let her fall into his parent's hands. Some father he was. Not that Dani knew Danny thought of himself as her father, even though he technically is.

Danny shook his head clear of those thoughts as the Fenton works building came into view. He flew down and phased though the front door, though the house, and down to the lab, not even bothering to return to human form as he frantically scanned the lab, praying that he wasn't too late to save her. Finally his eyes rested on a small cube of blue energy in the corner of the room with a tiny black and white bundle in it.

"Danielle," he said. Sprinting across the room and kneeling down beside the cube.

Danielle lifted her head slowly, like it was taking the most of her energy just to do that simple task. She saw him and smiled weakly at him. She looked awful to say the least, Danny could see burn marks all along her jumpsuit and mid drift, she had swollen bruises on her face, and she had a look in her eyes that Danny knew all too well, it was the look he had whenever he was in pain.

Guilt and anger tore through Danny. One part of him wanted to do nothing more that get Dani out of that cube and hold her in his lap, while the other just wanted to go back to the park and completely incinerate his parents for being so prodigious to be able to doing this to a thirteen year old girl. He of course, chose to do what any sensible father figure would do.

"Don't worry Dani; I'll get you out of there." He said. Dani smiled weakly as Danny scrambled around the lab until he found the controls and flicked the switch off. Running to her side again, this time without the energy blocking him, he pulled Danielle into his lap.

"Water," It came out as barely a whisper, but Danny heard it loud and clear. He floated them up to the kitchen and placed her in one of the chairs by the table while he got out a glass and fixed her a drink.

He handed it to her and she drank it down greedily. "Ah, thanks Danny, my throat was killing me."

"What happened to you Dani?" Danny said, cutting straight to the point.

Danielle sighed as she put down her glass. "I figured you'd ask that, well I just decided to pop in for a visit is all." Danny's gaze didn't stray from her. "Ok, ok, your parents caught me after they had ambushed me, they took me back here and... and." She choked on the last few words, trying to suppress the sobs that were coming on.

"They tortured you." Danny's voice was soft on the outside, but on the inside pure rage was boiling in the pit of his stomach. Dani just nodded her head. She didn't trust her voice to speak right now without cracking horribly. "Well, you won't have to worry about them anymore; I'm going to make sure that they'll never even see you again." Danny said, wrapping his arms around his female counterpart. "Tell me what happened."

"Well," Dani said after a small moment of silence. "I was on the lower side of town, trying to see if I could steal some food for my next meal when your mom caught me. I bolted, but ended up running into your dad and getting a massive shock from this weird belt he was wearing."

"The spectre-deflector." He said out loud, unintentionally interrupting her.

"Ya, and when your mom made a grab for me, her spectre-deflector shocked me too, only she held out longer so it wasn't just a one second shock. When they heard me scream, they figured I was over shadowed and captured me, brought me back here and decided to shock me thinking that it would force the ghost out of me." Danny felt his Danielle cringe as she recalled the painful things they had done to her.

"Don't worry Dani, I'll protect you." He said, tightening their embrace. "Keep going."

Danielle took in a shaky breath before continuing. "After a few shocks, the ecto-energy finally managed to endues my ghost half, but after that happened they saw your logo on my jump-suit and 'figured out'" Dani made sure to put extra emphasis on the falseness on 'figure out'. "That I'd converted my human body into ecto-plasm and killed her. So then they stole some of my ecto-plasm and locked me up in that cube thing and a few hours later you showed up to rescue me."

Danielle turned around in her seat to see her original close to tears. She was about to say something, but he cut her off. "Oh god Dani, I'm so sorry, I should have been there to protect you."

"No, I'm sorry Danny; I shouldn't have come, but I just wanted to see you again so badly. I guess it was a stupid idea to come back here." Danielle hung her head low.

"It wasn't a stupid idea; in fact I was hoping you would visit soon."Danny said. Danielle's head snapped around so fast, it was a miracle that she didn't get whiplash.

"Really?" Dani's eyes were beginning to well up with tears.

Danny laughed a little at how cute she looked. "Dani in case you haven't noticed: I care about a lot, in fact one day I was planning on finding you and bringing back here so you could live with me. That is, if you want to live with me." Tears were streaming down Danielle's cheeks.

Danielle broke Danny's embrace and he thought he had stepped over the line, until Dani turned around and flung her arms around his neck. "Of course I'd want to live with you, you're the only family I have." She said, burying her head into the crook of his neck. "But how can I live with you, and not get discovered by your parent, because as dumb as Vlad said your dad was, your mom is still an expert ghost hunter."

"You just let me worry about that, why don't you go have a nice hot shower, it's probably been ages since you've had a proper wash." He teased and she stuck out her tongue before running out of the kitchen. As soon as she was gone Danny reverted back to his human form and pulled out his cell phone, he needed to talk to Sam.

"Danny, where have you been? I was starting to get worried that your parents had actually caught you."

"Sam, I'm at my house, but there's a problem and I need some advice." Danny quickly explained what had happened between his parents and what Dani had told him. "I just don't think I can keep living with them, if they could put Danielle though torture like that just because they thought she was overshadowed, then how do you think they'd take the news that their son is a ghost?"

"I see your point."

"Ya, but the real problem is; where am I going to go? I can't rent out an apartment because I'm too young, maybe I can find some abandoned house that me and Dani could haunt." Danny said, thinking out loud.

"Um... well' Danny you could, that is, um... if you wanted to," Sam was very nervous about something.

"Sam calm down," Danny said. After a few deep breaths Sam continued, this time without tripping over her own words. .

"You both could come live with me, the mansion is defiantly big enough to hold both of you two and I'm rich so money won't be a problem."

"You're forgetting one tiny detail Sam, how are we possible going to convince your parents, who hate me by the way, to let me and Danielle stay at your house." There was a pause before Danny heard Sam sigh heavily from the other end. "Sam, is everything ok?"

"No," Sam replied. "Danny, there's something I need to tell you, just pack your stuff and head over to my house." And before Danny could say anything back, the phone went dead in his hand.

Danny was understandably concerned about his now girlfriend, she had sounded just a little bitter when she said she needed to tell him something. Deciding that he'd deal with whatever Sam wanted to tell him, he trudged upstairs and saw Danielle exiting the bathroom; her cheeks were still flushed red from the hot water and she was smiling dreamily.

"Enjoy your shower, my little princess?" he said in a teasing tone.

Dani quirked an eyebrow at her original, but smiled. "You're little princess?" She giggled. "You're such a dad." Danielle's stomach for an unknown reason, felt like it was tying itself into knots when she finished her sentence.

"Makes sense," Danny said a little quietly, his own stomach was going through something much worse than his clone's. Danielle watched her original and tilted her head to the side a bit, not understanding what he meant. Seeing this, Danny nervously responded, "Well a dad is a male who contributes to the D.N.A of another life form, so... ya." He said, not sure what else he could say.

"Oh," She said, not sure what to say either. "So, then you really are my dad." Danny nodded shyly. Danielle stayed quiet while she processed the information. Did Danny think of her as a daughter? Did she think of him as a father? He always acted so overprotective whenever she was around. He loved her more than the fruit-loop ever had. There was only one way to find out. "So, um... what do I call you then?" She asked, her heart was beating so hard if sounded like thunder in her ears.

"Well, it's up to you, because I'm happy with whatever you're happy with." He said and mustered up the best calm smile he could.

Dani was silent for what seemed like forever to Danny, but in one second he was on the floor with Danielle on top of him shouting daddy in his ears over and over again. Danny eventually managed to calm down his new daughter and for a minute they just lay there, enjoying each other's presence. It was Danny who eventually broke this comfortable silence.

"Well, let's get packing, shall we?" He pulled himself to his feet and then turned around to help his daughter up.

"Packing? What are you packing for?" She said, fallowing him as he began walking down the hall.

"We're leaving to find a new home." Was his only answer, making Danielle almost fall over in shock.

"What do you mean we're leaving to find a new home? This is your home; you can't just leave it, what about your parents? You can't just leave them either." Danielle shouted.

"Yes I can." He said, turning around. "They tortured you, a thirteen year old girl; just to get at a ghost they thought was overshadowing you. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let you live in a house that has dangerous ghost hunting weapons in it and prejudice bastards like Maddie and Jack." Danielle felt slightly unnerved by the fact that Danny had called his parents bastards and used their first names instead of mom and dad. "Now come on, I want to be out of here before they get back from the hospital."

"Hospital?" Dani said in horror, suddenly wondering what had happened before he had arrived to rescue her. Danny just looked at her with solemn eyes and bent down to kiss her forehead.

"Go into the shed that's around the back and look for a box that says: Jazz's old clothes. They should fit you nicely until we get you some proper clothes." And with that, Danny sent her off and hurried into his own room.

He opened up his closet and pulled out a few suitcases he always kept stashed in there, just in case he needed to leave in a hurry. His daughter came back up the stairs with the box of clothes. As quickly and neatly as possible, Danny unpacked the clothes and put them in the suitcase.

"Ok Danielle, now that that's done, do you have to go to the bathroom?"

Danny I'm thirteen, just because you're my dad now doesn't mean that I need you to baby me." She put her hands on her hips looking crossed.

"Alright then, go grab some movies, just in case we manage to get a D.V.D player in our new home." He said.

Danny grabbed the handles of two of his suitcases and brought them to the front steps. He left the door open as he went back to his room to get the other suitcase. When he got back he saw that Dani had already had a few movie's picked out, which just so happened to be Danny's favourite as well. He chuckled at how alike they were and grabbed the last suitcase. As he walked out onto the front step, he saw Jack was standing only a couple of feet away with an ecto-gun in hand.

"Danny," he herd Maddie say as she slowly climbed out of the R.V, wincing from the pain that her broken ribs gave her. "What's going on? What are you doing with all of those suitcases?" Danny only stared at the ghost hunters with a hard glare.

He turned back and called out. "Dani, hurry up, Maddie and Jack are here." He knew they would have questions, questions that he didn't want to answer.

"Coming" Dani's voice came from his room and not a second later his daughter was rushing down the staircase, but froze when she saw Maddie and Jack.

"Son, what's going on?" Jack repeated in a more demanding tone.

Danny glared at him, before replying. "I'm leaving,"


	5. Chapter 5

**Finally, an update. I am so sorry about the unexpected wait. I wasn't planning on taking the story in this direction, but I think it turned out really well for something I improvised.**

**Enjoy my loyal readers.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danny phantom blah blah and if Nickelodeon had a problem with me writing DP fanficton... well they can shove it up their corporate asses for all I care. **

"What do you mean you're leaving?" Jack asked dumbly.

"What do you think I mean you fat idiot? I'm moving out, running away; call it whatever you want, but I'm not staying here anymore." Danny said rather bluntly. "Now get out of my way." He said and picked up the suitcases.

"You are not going anywhere young man, and you." She said, turning to Danielle with somewhat of a softer expression. "You're that girl who was overshadowed; we thought the ghost destroyed you. Are you alright?" She asked.

"Stay away from her." Danny said with absolute venom in his voice. His parents flinched at his words; they had never heard Danny talk like that, especially not towards them. "I'm taking Danielle somewhere you two won't find her and unlike you two, I'm not going to let some stupid obsession come before my child."

Most parents would be shocked to find out that their son had a child, but then again, Maddie and Jack aren't most parents. "Danny what are you talking about? This girl can't be your daughter, she would have had to been conceived when you were three." Maddie said.

Danny ignored her and turned to his clone. "Transform and get going, I'll only be a few minutes." Danielle looked unsure, but nodded and took her suitcase. She brought up the, white rings quickly and let them wash over her body, turning Dani Fenton into Dani phantom, before she flew off.

"T-that's not possible, that little girl just transformed into a ghost." Jack stuttered.

"That's because she's not a little girl or a ghost, she's a Halfa, half human, half ghost. And don't even think about saying that's impossible as well, because you just saw it for your own eyes." Danny said.

There was a long silence before either of them could think of anything to say. "If she is half ghost, then were her parents a ghost and a human, or were they half ghosts too?"

"Her parent is a half ghost as well." He said. There was a long pause before Danny exploded in rage. "You god damned idiots." He roared furiously. "Even when I'm practically waving the answer to my biggest secret in front of your faces, you're still fucking oblivious." Maddie and even Jack shrank back from their son out of fear. "That girl inherited her ghost powers and what did I call her only seconds ago." Seeing as how silence was Danny's only answer, he reached inside of him and triggered the familiar spark of cold that was his ghost side.

The second Danny was done transforming from Fenton to Phantom; Jack pointed his weapon at him and fired a shot that Danny easily dodged. "I knew it couldn't be true."Jack shouted. "You can't be my son; I've seen you two together before." He fired another shot which Danny easily just smacked away with the back of his hand and caused it to destroy the Fenton works sign.

"Oh, that," Danny scoffed. "There's a little ghost power out there called duplication," Danny said, splitting his form into two and changing the duplicate to human form. "But I wouldn't expect amateur ghost hunters such as you to know that." His human duplicate said.

"You filthy, lying peace of ecto-plasm." Maddie screamed and fired an ecto-bazooka which she managed to pull from seemingly nowhere again.

"Two years ago, you guys rejecting me was my biggest fear, now you can rot in hell for all I care." Phantom Danny said as he effortlessly dodged several shots from his parents.

"Shut up, you're not our son, Danny would never say such horrible things to us." Jack boomed.

"Actually I would, two years of being repeatedly threatened to be ripped apart molecule by molecule made it very easy to hate you." Phantom Danny said. "Besides, what kind of parents are you anyway?" Human Danny shouted. "The world's leading ghost experts and you two couldn't even figure out that your own son is half ghost." Phantom said. "Hello, Danny Fenton." "Danny Phantom, ever notice the similarities?" Both Danny's laughed as his parents looked like they were nearing their breaking point.

"Shut up," Maddie screamed in tears and fired another shot, this one connected with Danny dead in the chest, causing his copy to disappear in a flash of light.

Danny tumbled backwards, his chest was screaming in pain. He grunted and tried to sit up, only to be pushed back down by his father's massive foot and causing another spasm of pain to shoot though him. He was pretty sure his parents had their weapons pointed at him, that they were saying something about fully killing him, but he didn't care. The second Danny's eyes opened, he saw red.

He grabbed his father's ankle and twisted it, making fall face first on the ground. Before Maddie could react, he pulled his feat back and kicked his mother hard in her broken ribs. She gasped in pain and fell over backwards, clutching her chest in what was no doubt extreme pain. Danny quickly rose to his feet and stared down at his former mother. All he felt was anger, she and that idiot husband of hers constantly threatening to rip him apart molecule by molecule right in front of him, not being able to recognize their own son with inverted hair and eyes. They had the nerve to call him evil.

"I'll show you evil Maddie Fenton." He growled and grabbed her by her ankle. She yelped as he swung her around and threw her freebie style into the Fenton works Building. Maddie crashed to the ground, her body limp and unmoving.

"Maddie!" Jack screamed and turned towards Danny with absolute murder in his eyes.

He charged, drawing back his fist and throwing it forward as he got close enough to make contact with Phantom's face. Danny scoffed, catching Jack's meaty fist in his hand effortlessly. Jack's face melted from furry to horror in half a second as he found his arm being grabbed quickly and ripped out of its socket. He howled in pain and fell onto his back, clutching his shoulder in pain. Mr. Fenton opened his eyes just in time to see Danny building up a powerful amount of energy in his hand, looking down at with utter hatred.

"Burn in hell you bastard, you and your horrid wife." He said and unleashed the pent up energy.

Jack's mind went numb as his whole body was sent into a spasm and quickly passed out.

Danny calmly looked over to Maddie, and back to Jack, then to Fenton works and the Fenton R.V. He smiled cruelly as an idea entered his mind. He quickly sent an ecto-sphere at the R.V and making it explode and turning it into nothing but scrap metal. Danny laughed as he flew and fazed through the side of Fenton works, then down though the floor and into the lab.

"So many memories in this place." He whispered, then fired blast after blast at whatever was in his sights. "And now they're all gone." He said after he had destroyed everything. Danny floated up through the ceiling and found himself in his room. He gave it one last look before throwing a large ecto-sphere in the center and completely destroying the room and destroying any physical traces of his existence.

0000000

Sam waited uneasily for her friend recently turned boyfriend to arrive at her mansion. All she knew was that Danielle had arrived without Danny and said that his parents had shown up and he told her that he would catch up. Sam wasn't sure how to act towards Danny's clone. She wasn't worried about the fact that Danielle had once worked for Vlad. Just something about the girl made Sam uneasy, possibly the fact that she looked exactly like Danny. Luckily the silence was cut by a loud knock at the door. Sam dashed to the front entrance and opened the door to reveal the person she'd been waiting for.

Before Sam could say anything Danielle flew past her and slammed into Danny, knocking him off his feet and onto his back. "Daddy!" She cried, squeezing him as tight as ghostly possible.

After returning the hug, Danny got back up and saw Sam gapping at him. "Did... did I miss something?" Sam said, looking back and forth between me and Danielle.

"You wanna tell her." I said, not sure how to explain the whole, clone equals daughter, equals you may be a mother in law one day. I blinked and shook my head. What the hell was that all about? We haven't even been on one date yet and I'm already thinking about things like that?

"Um... Dad?" I looked down and saw that Dani was staring up at me expectantly.

I sighed. "I'll explain later, besides didn't you want to tell me something?" I noticed Sam stiffened suddenly and seemed to take on a depressed look when she relaxed.

She didn't say anything she just turned around and motioned for us to fallow her inside. We fallowed her to the living room and sat down around a coffee table, and because Sam's parents had bought it, it was twice the size of my kitchen table. Sam tried to say something I think, but every time she did, nothing came out.

Finally she just sighed and looked at me. "Danny... how long has it been since you saw my parents at all?" That struck me as odd. Sam always tried to avoid the topic that was her parents. A look at her told me that this was very serious so I decided to just answer the question.

"Um..." Now that I thought about it, I hadn't seen or even heard Sam talk about her parents for ages. "I guess about six months ago, Why?" Sam took in a shaky breath then answered.

"Because about six months ago, my parents and I got into a really nasty fight and they went to Europe for a week. The day they were supposed to come home I got a letter saying that they weren't going to come back at all, because they were tired of dealing with me and would rather stay in Europe and adopt a new daughter who'll live up to their standards." Sam buried her head in her hands as tears began to leak out of her eyes.

"Oh, Sam." Faster that I or Sam could register, Danielle was over the table and holding Sam in a caring embrace. Sam sniffed and wrapped her arms around Dani before letting a sob come out. "It's ok Sammy, we're here now and I'm sure Danny would be more than willing to hunt your parents down and kill them." She cooed softly. Sam laughed, and squeezed Dani softly before she let her go.

"Sam, why didn't you tell me that your parents left? You could have moved in with me or at the very least I could have stayed over here more." I quickly mimicked my daughter, man that feels great to say, and climbed over the table to hug my girlfriend, two in one day.

Sam hugged me back and buried her head into the crook of my neck. I bent down to kiss her, but froze when I saw Danielle watching me with a stare I could only call clueless. It made me laugh and I stretched my arm out so she could join our hug. We must have stayed like that for over fifteen minutes before we broke apart.

"She's so cute." Sam whispered to Danny as they watched a sleeping Danielle through the slight crack in her door. "What are you going to do if your parents find you her? They could call the police and you'd be forced to go back with them."

"I've taken care of that for the most part already. I destroyed all of my papers when I destroyed my room and since Dani was never officially born, she doesn't technically exist. Now all that's left is to find a way to bribe Technus to erase my existence and enter both of us as two people that were recently adopted by your grandma."

"You've put a lot of thought into this." Sam's voice was soft.

"Ya, well, I've been contemplating about running away for a while now. I stayed, because I thought that maybe they'd be able to see that not all ghosts are evil and I'd maybe be able to get back that relationship with my parents." I could feel a lump forming in my throat, but I swallowed and pushed it away. "But when they were willing to cause Danielle so much pain, just to force a out a ghost they thought was overshadowing her, I knew that I'd never be able to have that relationship with them. They'll never be able except me as long as I'm still part ghost." I said, creating a small ball of ecto-energy in my hand, and then crushing it.

"Come on Danny, let's go to bed. We've had enough drama for one day." She grabbed my hand and dragged me to her bedroom. We were too tired to bother to change into our pyjamas of for me to go to my own room, so we just fell on her bed, wrapped up in each other's arms and began to drift off into a blissful sleep.

It suddenly struck me like a ton of bricks that this was going to be my life from now on. In one day, I'd left my parents, got the girl of my dreams, gained a daughter, and got both Dash and Valerie off of my back. It made my stomach clench and twist in ways I thought were impossible, but when I looked back at Sam's face and though of how peaceful my daughter looked wrapped up in the blankets of her beds, I knew that everything would be alright in the end. And with that last thought, I drifted off into a calm sleep.

**THE END**

**Finally, it's done. I hoped you liked it and once again I am so sorry about the wait. I feel like a complete dough bag because my only reason for not updating sooner is that I just couldn't find the motivation to write, but it's ok now because it's over and done with.**

**Thank you to all my readers.**


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